Border Patrol union criticizes agency's hiring, training push
July 5, 2008 - 10:31PM
By Jeremy Roebuck, The Monitor
McALLEN - A political push to double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol by year's end has prompted hiring and training shortcuts that jeopardize the nation's southern frontier, according to a union that represents rank-and-file agents.



In a report released June 24, the National Border Patrol Council criticized the agency's relaxed educational requirements, shortened training periods and less thorough background checks.



It urged Congress to intervene to maintain border security.



"They want the best and the brightest, but they're going about it in the wrong way," union president T.J. Bonner said. "They're rolling the dice with our homeland security."



But Border Patrol brass maintains that today's ranks are better educated, better trained and more diverse than any in the agency's past.



"If you're comparing past and present, the requirements are more stringent than they've ever been," said Lloyd Easterling, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for the agency.



The debate underscores seething tensions from the Border Patrol's old guard of agents, as well as the morale issues that leaders face to turn the agency into one of the federal government's premier law enforcement arms.






In 2006, President Bush announced plans to hire 6,000 more Border Patrol agents by the time he left office, with a goal of expanding the ranks to 18,000.



Since then, about 5,000 have been hired, bringing today's ranks to nearly 17,000. The agency is on its way to meeting the president's goal with another 1,000 agents by year's end.



And in 2009, another 2,000 agents are expected to be hired, bringing the total force to 20,000 agents.



In the rush to fill those spots, Bonner said, the agency has lowered its training standards.



Shortened stays at the agency's training academy in Artesia, N.M., have flooded sector offices with too many recruits and too few veterans for mentoring, the report states.



Before the push, training in Artesia took five to six months of tactical, physical, Spanish and legal course work.



After the push, through late last year, that same training took four months for all recruits.



Today, training is cut to less than two months of tactical, physical and legal course work for all recruits, plus a 40-day intensive Spanish course if a particular recruit needs it.



Because recruits aren't required to have a high school diploma or equivalency degree, the Border Patrol has attracted some recruits with writing abilities "no better than those of middle school students," according to the union document.



But Easterling points out that the Border Patrol has never required a high school diploma, even before President Bush's push for a larger force.



And the agency counts more than 4,000 of its 17,000 agents as holding bachelor's and advanced degrees.



For those who didn't graduate from high school or college, many come with years of relevant experience, including in the military and at local and state law enforcement agencies.



Any changes to the training program in Artesia have simply been in the name of efficiency, Easterling said.



Besides, each newly minted recruit receives hours of field and continuing classroom training after graduating from the academy and reporting to their duty stations, the agency often points out. New agents remain on a two-year probation period of ongoing testing and evaluation while they continue on-the-job training - one year longer than before.






The union's report also raised concerns over a current policy that allows new agents to begin training before background checks are completed.



In the past, the FBI conducted thorough reviews of each applicant before they were hired.



Now, new recruits must only pass a polygraph test and a criminal history check before entering the academy in Artesia.



Still, Easterling said, an outside contractor conducts a thorough check of new agents before they're out of the academy and released into the field.



Even so, Bonner fears the change has allowed a few "bad apples" to slip through.



In 2007, the U.S. Homeland Security Department's Office of the Inspector General conducted 79 investigations into allegations of corruption among federal agents along the border - up from 31 in 2003. So far this year, the office has opened about 200 cases.



"We know that drug cartels have a keen interest in infiltrating the Border Patrol's ranks," Bonner said. "We should be increasing our scrutiny."



In the Rio Grande Valley sector, which has added 593 new agents since 2006, most of the few cases of recent alleged corruption, have involved veteran agents - hired years before Bush's recruitment and training push.



The Border Patrol has not yet officially responded to the union's report, but Easterling said top leaders are aware of its recommendations.



In an era when agents are facing increased numbers of violent attacks - from illegal immigrants, coyotes and drug smugglers lunging at them with cars, knives and bats, as well as shooting at and lobbing grenades at them on some parts of the border - any concerns with the agents' training is noticed.



"We definitely take the concerns of our agents very seriously," Easterling said. "But you have to understand that we're responsible to several different masters - our employees and the American public."


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